Some Day I'll Find You
A Room With a View
Mad About You
Don't put your daughter on the stage Mrs Worthington!
Parisian Pierrot
Mad Dogs and Englishmen
Poor Little Rich Girl
Twentieth Century Blues
You were there

Has Anybody Seen Our Ship?
Men About Town
Mad About the Boy
I'll Follow My Secret Heart
I Like America
London Pride
Younger Generation
If Love Were All
I'll Remember Her/I'll See You Again

If Love Were All is the story of Noël Coward (Harry Groener)
and Gertrude Lawrence (Twiggy). Their's was a celebrated life-long collaboration
that included two inspired productions in which they appeared together:
Private Lives (1930) and Tonight at 8:30 (1936). All - or most
- of the numbers listed above will be familiar and they are interspersed
with a narrative by 'Noël' (and embellishments by Gertie). They begin
by telling us how they first met, in their early teens, on London's Euston
Station on their way to Liverpool to appear in a stage show. She gave him
an orange and he fell in love with her there and then. Their story continues
right up until Gertie's death.

But it's the songs that matter. Who could resist the naughty but
only-to-realistic, 'Don't put your daughter ("please, on my knees") on the
stage, Mrs Worthington.' or the humour of 'Mad Dogs and Englishmen.' Then
there is the sophistication of 'Poor Little Rich Girl' and the wartime nostalgia
of 'London Pride.'

Groener is marvellous. Twiggy's voice, style, and look fits comfortably into
the milieu of the Roaring Twenties but her intonation is... well let's say
that she is often a semi-tone (or more) off her target; "I'll follow my secret
heart" is weak with the voice vibrato and sliding rather painfully up to
the note. Another disappointment is the delivery of the title song, 'If Love
Were All.' This is a lovely number and sung by an accomplished actress/singer
like Elaine Paige, never fails to bring a lump to the throat and a tear to
the eye.

But, in all, this is a sparkling CD and a confident recommendation to sweep
away the blues.